| Comments: |
New Year's was always a good time to go home for; even as ANBU, there was a lull of missions, at least of the 'rookie-type', and he could afford to drop by Moriki's and eat them out of house and home.
He had just stayed the weekend, though, catching the tail end of the celebrations. There weren't that few missions to be able to take a week off, let alone the two weeks Tenten had.
Kotetsu let himself mourn the lack of Academy-scheduled holidays for a moment, then let it fade. Time to get to work.
He might have been in ANBU for a month or so but he still didn't know everyone there. Was a little hard to, since there were two other departments Kotetsu was hardly familiar with, and he hadn't met all of the veterans in Hunters yet.
But he did know that most people heading in towards the HQ most probably had to be ANBU in one department or the other, and thought that the couple pausing near the HQ was ANBU too. Their similarity in features was enough to convince Kotetsu of their close relations, and the rather adorable way the tall man had tugged the wman's hair definitely marked them as cousins, or siblings. Then the man left, and the woman continued on in. Seems like she was in ANBU. Kotetsu wondered if she was in Hunters too - maybe she'd be more inclined to be friendly than the rather chilly politeness he seemed to get from every other ANBU he met, barring the other rookies.
Since he'd paused near the entrance to observe them and therefore was closer to the door than she was, it stood to reason that he keep the door open for her.
"Hi," he said cheerfully, "Was that your brother?"
That was, Kotetsu reflected later, probably not the best thing to say to an utter and total stranger.
Sumire had almost decided to start this year on the right foot and thank the short stranger (mm, 5cm heels) when he opened his mouth and threw that whole idea out the window.
"Yes," she said in an icy tone. "He is." And it wasn't any business of this... person's. He had to be a rookie, with that big, stupid---
--wait, Yamashiro was the same kind of idiot. Perhaps they were related. "Thank you for the door," she added as she swept through smelling of snow and something vaguely springtime. It would be one hell of a bother if he lived on the same floor she did, and her grip tightened slightly on the little fan in her pocket.
No, no Aoi would throttle her with her own hair.
Kotetsu blinked at her icy tone. He hadn't said anything that offensive, had he? He ran through the conversation in his head and concluded this lady was probably touchier than a cactus.
"Are you a veteran-ANBU as well?" he asked finally, after going it over in his mind. That was mild enough, professional enough, right? No touching on family, because apparently that was a sore point with some people.
He wondered sourly whether all ANBU made a point of being unwelcoming. He wouldn't be surprised at this rate.
"I am." Six more months and she would be there for four years. Four. Way to beat the odds, Sumire. She'd be re-enlisting too.
Sumire pulled the little fan from her pocket and whirled it between her fingers. She'd stopped in the middle of the empty lobby (Why was it empty? What if an injured team came in the middle of the night? Lazy chuunin deskmonkeys.) and turned back to look at the younger man. "And you, are most certainly a rookie. I can smell the new on you."
Why did it sound like 'rookie' and 'new' were bad words in her exquisitely made up mouth? A whole lot of rather rude words went through Kotetsu's mind at that point, like 'jade' and 'white-face', but he doubted that she'd understand the slang from his part of the streets. She looked too well-brought up to even have seen them, outside of missions, if she even went on them.
He mentally added a couple more words he was not going to say.
Kotetsu stuffed his hands into his pockets instead, feeling a comfortable coil of wire and tag. "Thanks," he said, keeping most of the sarcasm out of his voice. "It's amazing how some people just seem to know. Besides the 'new', what else gave it away?"
It was like it was a bad thing to be a rookie with these people. They made faces like he carried the plague. It was an entirely good thing one of his neighbours was Ryuichi then, since he wasn't going to diss him for being new. He'd run a mission with him any day.
For all Sumire knew, this pint-sized rookie did carry the plague. She eyed him up and down, ignoring the sarcasm (Shibata on a bad day with a head cold would do better).
"What else? Look at the way you stand, and your idiot's grin." Her tone clearly communicated what she did not. Have some pride for your position, fool. She turned back towards the stairwell and started stalking off, still spinning the little fan. Even she hadn't been so... naive to introduce herself to all and sundry like some puppy waiting to be kicked.
Woe be to him that followed her.
No one could say that Kotetsu was particularly smart. On the other hand, he was fairly sure they didn't let idiots into ANBU.
Which was just another way of saying he knew this lady had just insulted him. And for what? He'd been rather polite.
Kotetsu wasn't very good at killing with words. He knew some people were terribly good at it, but he wasn't. He wasn't very good at showing disdain with tone, but he could read it just as well as the next person.
He never liked it when people talked down to or patronised him.
Right now? He had three options: One, follow her - and insult her back. Two, stay here and fume. Three, let her have the last word, go up to his apartment via the lift or something else.
Option three and two didn't sound very likeable at all.
Besides, she'd insulted him first. "It's not like you dress very practically either," Kotetsu said, just loud enough for her to hear, slouching even more obviously, as insolently as he could, as he sauntered slowly towards the staircase. "Might be new, but even I know not to wear fucking high heels to work. Unlike a lot of girls."
Of course, he thought later, that was just asking to get punted down the stairs.
Ah well. It wasn't like she was a hunter - it just wasn't practical.
"That's it?" Sumire's laugh was bright, bubbly and echoed up the stairwell like confetti. It was also very, very dangerous, lined with razorwire. "All the things you could insult, and you insult my shoes?"
Her hair swayed like a living thing, as she turned. A long, twitching lock mimicking the same hand movement some regular person would use to say "Come closer to me."
Ren had "coincidentally" (stalking was such an ugly word-- watching carefully sounded much nicer) met up with Aoi a few feet away from Sumire, who happened to be talking to an okay looking girl. Her competition radar went off (Aoi-san was such a good looking guy, this girl was obviously trying to hone in on HER territory) so Ren knew playing fair had to be thrown out the window. She summoned her best "angelic-oh-so-sweet-like-candy" smile, greeted them both, and handed Aoi a cloth filled with cookies that she had baked for him. The other girl looked half amused but mostly annoyed but Ren only beamed at her when Aoi thanked her for her gift. With the promise of meeting up over the weekend, she left them with a wave, feeling highly triumphant.
Ren was a nice girl, really, but when it came to men she was a demon.
"Sumire-chan, you really shouldn't," Ren said lightly when she saw the look of DEATH upon her "friend's" pretty face, "the medics TOLD you that eating men gives you heartburn. Hi, Kotetsu-kun~"
Her mood was just too, too good. That girl that had been with Aoi-san had given her SUCH a delicious glare when she walked away. It smelled like VICTORY in all senses.
Sometimes, just a challenging look was enough to make Kotetsu throw caution - and common sense - to the winds. He was all about to stalk in and give the annoying jade a piece of his mind when this other girl called out, making him feel cornered for a short moment before her words registered.
"I can take care of myself," he grumped, then blinked. The girl - woman - smiling was cheerful, huggable and seemed rather nice. She also called him by name, which immediately inclined him to her, only he didn't remember ever talking to her.
He'd remember such frizzy hair, wouldn't he?
"Do I know you?" he asked, puzzled.
Sumire sighed inaudibly and gave Ren a look that clearly stated the other woman was ruining her entertainment. Knocking a man down a few pegs because he thought he might somehow be better than her (hahahahahahahahahaaha, rookies), would've been great fun. Her hair lay flat against her chest in two long locks and twitched like an agitated cat's tail.
She even pouted behind Kotetsu's back. Mean.
"Yeah... we um-- met in the hallway once. You were in a state of undress," Ren said, trying not to laugh. Her memory was excellent-- she could never forget a face or a nice, even if she wanted to, and that incident on top of that made it impossible to ever NOT remember this kid. Poor guy. Being young and on the end of Sumire's rage never boded well. "I'm Ren. Ito Ren but Ren is preferable."
What DID he do to piss Sumire off?
Forget it. She didn't even want to know.
"Oh."
Was he blushing? Oh gods yes he was blushing. He yanked the bandage on his face down, to hide the worst of it, and wished she hadn't shown up at all. Sometimes, you just had those nightmares of walking around HQ and getting seen by other people naked. For most guys Kotetsu's age, the worst thing that could happen would be getting caught by a girl.
He'd just come out from the showers couple nights ago, and all but walked into the girl - Ren - with just a towel on his hips because he'd been in a hurry to shower and entirely forgot to take a change of clothing with him. He hadn't screamed like a little girl, but he'd wished the ground could swallow him up and not spit him back out.
He hadn't even remembered her name, babbled something to her while hoping she'd go away, and not remember anything. He himself had promptly forgotten the incident to save his dignity.
And now she shows up and remembers.
The floor had obviously no intention of saving him like it hadn't the last time. Fucker. "Um. Nice to meet you." Maybe if he were to hide in his room for a week, she'd never remember him again. Fat hope.
This was too rich, the rookie's face was absolutely priceless. It almost made up for the fact the idiot couldn't even insult properly. Even his ears had turned red!
Sumire's smile widened, Ren hadn't ruined a thing. She even took back all those nasty things that she thought about her 'friend' just a moment ago.
"Fine, fine," Sumire waved a dismissive hand at Kotetsu as though banishing a servant or perhaps an annoying buzzing mosquito. "Shall I leave him to you, Ren-chan?" | |
![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}